Hillary Sadlon is a 22-year-old nursing student at Seton Hall University in South Orange. Her birthday wish to do 22 random acts of kindness in July has sparked a campus-wide movement this holiday season.Eunice Lee/The Star-Ledger

SOUTH ORANGE — Hillary Sadlon will surprise you by paying for your lunch unannounced.

Or by weeding your garden.

Or rounding up stray shopping carts in a Wal-Mart parking lot — and offering to help load your groceries.

A nursing student at Seton Hall University in South Orange, Sadlon spent her 22nd birthday in July performing 22 random acts of kindness — and now her birthday wish has mushroomed into a campuswide movement this holiday season.

What began as a personal birthday mission mentioned in Sadlon’s college newspaper caught the attention of national media, and this month the university kicked off 12 Acts of Christmas Kindness, a twist on the 12 days of Christmas that was inspired by Sadlon’s goodwill tour. College

President A. Gabriel Esteban announced the campaign of kindness Dec. 3 at the university’s annual tree lighting ceremony, where more than 1,000 students, faculty, staff and area residents watched a 60-foot spruce tree light up with 42,900 lights.

The movement has spread quickly through social media. The day after the kickoff, more than 250 people had taken the online pledge to participate, and the 12 Acts of Christmas Kindness garnered 200 likes on Facebook. The hashtag #shukindness helped spread the message on Twitter.

Sadlon is still surprised by the attention she’s received.

"I’d like to think that I’m (willing) to lend a helping hand to people, but not start a movement like this," she said.

But Esteban regards Sadlon, who will graduate next year, as a role model.

"I hope that the entire community will follow Hillary’s example and perform their own acts of kindness this Christmas," he said at the tree lighting ceremony.

Spirit grows

And apparently the movement is spreading. When the tweets reached South Orange Village Trustee Sheena Collum, a Seton Hall alumna, she e-mailed trustee colleagues and village President Alex Torpey and said she hopes to personally get about two dozen others involved.

"I’ve been the recipient of random kindness before, it reminds me of the good in people," Collum said via e-mail. "This is what the holidays are all about."

But back to that 22 item birthday list. Sadlon, a native of Belvidere in Warren County, said she got inspired on Pinterest last December after seeing a 28-year-old woman’s post about using her birthday to do 28 random acts of kindness. Right there, Sadlon decided she wanted to do the same. She began planning and carefully compiled a list of 22 deeds to perform the day she turned 22 on July 23. She also enlisted the help of her boyfriend, Evan Reed, and a friend, Meghan Cox, to document and aid her mission.

Sadlon and her 22-item list on her 22nd birthday July 23.Courtesy of Facebook

When her birthday arrived — a stifling July day — the three friends loaded Sadlon’s supplies into Reed’s Dodge Ram truck and drove to Bethlehem, Pa., where they completed the first two tasks: donating blood and paying the toll for four other cars at the Route 22 toll bridge.

She planned out each act — from donating clothes to giving cold bottled water to pump attendants at four gas stations to leaving pennies heads-up wherever she went (for good luck) — and she budgeted her time.

At Wal-Mart, for instance, she loaded groceries for an elderly couple from Florida, rounded up shopping carts with Reed and Cox and placed notes of encouragement on cars. Whenever she approached a stranger, Sadlon said she always identified herself and explained her birthday mission.

Spreading joy

In all, it took 9½ hours, across two states, in five towns, to complete the 22 acts of kindness, she said. It cost Sadlon about $200.

They gave supplies to a nearby no-kill animal shelter, delivered baked goods to her neighbors, left a thank-you letter for the mailman and offered doughnuts to Belvidere police. Help from Reed and Cox came in handy when Sadlon weeded her Nana’s yard and delivered balloons to students in a special education class at Belvidere Elementary.

"You want to just be kind to anyone you encounter," she said. "It’s the way I want to continue living my life."

Before embarking on the day, Sadlon had some anxiety over how strangers would react but the day went off without a hitch. She got several "happy birthdays," and the Florida couple was so tickled they came back for a photo.

She almost hit a snag when she called the local PNC Bank a day earlier. When she asked a bank employee how many tellers would be at work the next day, she said he got nervous and hesitated. She explained she wanted to give them flowers and tried to assure him that she had no malicious intent. The next day, she gave all the tellers flowers without incident.

Some recipients of Sadlon’s kindness weren’t random but they were surprised. She gave her mother flowers at work and brought ice cream for employees at the Belvidere Regional Pool, where she lifeguards and teaches lessons.

Even when she tried to target strangers, she ran into familiar faces. At A&P, she purchased a $10 gift card to give to the next person in line, which turned out to be a couple she knew.

When Seton Hall officials Laurie Pine, the director of media relations, and Dan Kalmanson, associate vice president of public relations and marketing, approached her with the idea of bringing similar kind acts to Seton Hall, Sadlon realized the impact her birthday wish had made.

She credits Michelle Peterson, director of the Division of Volunteer Services, with handling logistics of the campus effort, such as getting clearance to set up tables for charity drives, and overall giving the campaign legs.

So far, Peterson has heard of students giving out baked goods, writing encouraging notes during finals week and leaving little gifts for others to find. Also several faculty, staff and alumni have pledged to participate.

Sadlon, says Peterson, has been a bit overwhelmed by the limelight.

"This is who she is, she has a pure heart," Peterson said. "You can tell by being around her that she exudes goodness."